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Innovation Speed Bumps

Much of the aerospace community has been silently watching the series of unfortunate events surrounding the Boeing Dreamliner 787 commercial airplane this year—from fuel leaks to fires, which resulted in the grounding of the entire global fleet of roughly 50 Dreamliner aircraft.

Airbus, Boeing’s biggest competitor, is often a very vocal opponent. In fact, Airbus criticized Boeing for accepting considerable government funding in the design, development, and manufacture of the Dreamliner, which it coined “the seven-AID-seven.” This time, however, Airbus has been noticeably silent.

This debacle isn’t just a black mark on Boeing’s record or that of battery manufacturer GS Yuasa, but on the aerospace industry as a whole. Chances are good that it is also best solved by the global aerospace community pulling together to exact change efficiently and effectively.

It is perhaps why Elon Musk, an engineer and the entrepreneur who founded Tesla Motors (maker of the Tesla Roadster, the first battery-powered electric sports car), has been more vocal on the topic of 787 avionics and battery safety—and he has been brainstorming a solution. Musk is suggesting that the battery be redesigned. Boeing, however, has begun manufacturing a fireproof container to enclose the 787’s current battery design.

This geek, thankful it was caught before it caused any loss of life, looks forward to seeing aerospace engineers, executives, policymakers, researchers, and vendors join together to find a suitable solution to this challenge and to avoid such events in the future.

About J VanDomelen

More Posts by J VanDomelen

Comments 1

Is this a credible product? Tesla Motors is under Fed investigation for bribery & corruption; Musk stole
the company from Martin the founder; Tesla has been sued many, many times for misdeeds; Tesla took
taxpayer $$ yet hired off-shore workers and fired NUMMI union workers; Their batteries blow up when they
get wet or overcharge; They owe more $ than they can ever pay back. The Leaf does the same thing for
$100k less. The billionaire owner got free tax money without earning it; Goldman, K&L Gates, KPCB & their
investors put in fake car orders and fake stock buys to pump the stock; They lied to San Jose, Downey,
New Mexico and many cities about building a factory in each; The CEO cheated on his wife & business
partners; The CEO hires magazines to write glory-stories about him; Telsa has 30 Indian bloggers hired to
write fake user postings; The EMF from the car is measured to cause biological damage; They changed the
prices on customers after they ordered; They never get their costs right; each car coming off the line
has problems according to Musk himself; Selling 4K cars after a decade is a pathetically small # for such
a run-of-the-mill electric car; They announce they “intend” to pay the loan back early, yet do not
actually pay it back even though the owner has a billion dollars; Former staff have accused the CEO of
everything from spying to harassment; The public calls the car the “Solyndra-Mobile” and say it is an
“Un-American Product”; It is made, and priced, by and for Stanford elitist yuppie rich boys; The same six
writers that support Tesla have been shown to be paid shills; All of this is well documented. Wouldn’t
anyone would be ashamed to drive a Tesla?

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